Mattresses and box springs have been known in the art for many years. Typically, a mattress is configured to directly support a person or persons, with the box spring being positioned beneath the mattress and above a supporting frame, foundation, or supporting surface. The box spring provides additional cushioning and support underneath the mattresses and may include a variety of springs within its interior.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,276,048 to Beckman, entitled "Spring Assembly", discloses a plurality of bellowed springs 14, which may or may not be intermeshed when in position. These springs may include a hole 42, which is configured to fit over loops 30 of rod elements 24, such that the springs may be attached as shown in FIG. 5.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,580 to Curtis, entitled "Plastic Spring Assembly Connected to Wire Frame", discloses corrugated plastic springs substituted for metal coil springs. The bottom of the springs are provided with spaced apart "wire retaining means" for connecting the springs to the wires. The retaining means are so located that the wires, which have been constructed perpendicular to each other, are bent out of a perpendicular relationship and impart opposite rotational forces on the spring, providing for a secure connection therebetween.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,433,012 to Zalicovitz, entitled "Resilient Constructions for Use in Furniture", discloses tubular constructions constructed out of a flexible, relatively stiff, non-metalic sheet material such as paper, cardboard or synthetic plastics. These tubes are preferably of relatively short length, and have two opposite substantially flat sides, the connected sides being provided with creases or lines of fold material parallel to the flat sides, which may be referred to as "plaited".
U.S. Pat. No. 2,979,739 to Krakauer, entitled "Mattress, Cushion or the Like", discloses a mattress construction which may include springs 32 (see FIG. 8), of a suitable light-space weight resilient and flexible synthetic plastic material of the requisite thickness and shape to provide support under the pressure of the body of a mattress user. In reference to FIGS. 3-6, an interconnection is provided with an intermediate wire spring 23 and an upper and lower support members 10, 12.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,150,747 to Naulty, entitled "Cushion", discloses tubular, resilient columns 7, which includes (as shown in FIG. 3) integral diaphragms 12, provided as reinforcement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,932 to Haslim, entitled "Segmented Tubular Cushion Springs and Spring Assembly", discloses tubular spring members, which may be made of plastic materials, used seat cushions.
Although the above documents do disclose configurations which have benefits in their own right, they nevertheless exhibit shortcomings which are satisfied by that identified in the present description.